Lost in the shadows
by Railen
Summary: Quite some time has passed after Xana had been killed together with the supercomputer. Life continued for the Lyoko-warriors and all went well. Until… Life would never be the same for them.. Rated T for violence later on.
1. Chapter one: recap

**Chapter one: recap**

**Author's note: Just a story after season 4, told by Jeremie's diary. No idea how I came to it, it just popped in my mind! Hope you'll like it – I don't really like it myself. 0.o**

**Note 2: I'm doubting between K+ and T rating. For now K+ surely would be okay, but it'll get quite rough later on. Guess I'll take T to be safe.**

**Dedicated to: Thomas, since you helped me with my math homework. xD**

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**Jeremie's diary**

Lost. Completely lost. I should've known. I should've seen it. I should've predicted it'd all go wrong. I should've stopped it. It went too far, way too far, and now it's too late. A mysterious death, an even more inexplicable disappearing.. I just wasn't there in time. All my fault. Why didn't I stop it? I knew it'd go wide of the mark – I just didn't want to believe it for a reason which I still don't understand. It was obvious though. Lost, oh so lost..

_Why_ did I let it happen? I was too weak. Too weak to push the button. Too weak to say 'no'. Yes, I saw the dangers and the risks. I gave them signs and I warned them but it just wasn't convincing enough. I just wanted to think everything would go fine.. I blame myself, a naïve little fool. Life would never be the same.

To think how idiotic it started. After two years or harsh battle we had finally defeated Xana. We had freed Aelita from the virtual world of Lyoko. We had returned her memories. We had saved Lyoko from total destruction. We had freed William from the evil virus' control – and eventually finished it of with an MA-program.

Strange how much effort it took to lock the dangerous supercomputer, even after it gave us so much trouble. Even I who had spent every single day _and_ night to counter Xana couldn't do it instantaneously. Everyone, except for Yumi and William, had their own reasons. To be honest, I was afraid our friendship would be gone, since it occurred thanks to Lyoko and our adventures.

Aelita would leave a big part of her past behind, including the death of her father, Waldo Franz Schaeffer. It's a shame he died, the world lost a great intellect.

Ulrich and Odd, on the other hand, just liked the idea of being heroes, even when nobody knew it thanks to our time-jumps. A typical thought of those two, understandable for them – I'd never see the use for going to Lyoko, I never saw myself wanting to step foot in Lyoko and I'm certainly not the fighting type! Wait, did I mention that William became a member of our group, and Sissi went on to be a friend?

Anyway, after the day was over and our last return-to-the-past had been launched, we all agreed to kill the computer. The next day would be our first normal day in two years.

Odd began to spend more time to his art, videos, pranks, and his duty as a class representative. Ulrich, active guy that he is, gave even more effort to soccer and his penchak-silat. His studying behaviour barely changed though, which was a shame. Yumi just did.. stuff. Went to the movies, attended some parties and whatnot. Little note: Ulirch and Yumi still aren't officially together, but to my opinion they're _really_ close now – it was about time!

William didn't change that much, however he stopped chasing Yumi. Aelita continued becoming a famous DJ, and she got my full support in that. Since Xana was dead I didn't use my computer excessively anymore, so I got compliments from everyone. And I had to admit, I looked way better now I didn't stay up all night any longer.

And as an additional advantage: I had more time to spend with Aelita. We finally got together a month after Lyoko. It was the best occasion of my life – she was brilliant and sweet at the same time. I'm unable to describe my feelings at that time – nevertheless I'd rather not talk about it anyway. We did things I thought I'd never do, and after what happened.. Curse on myself..

Life was perfect at that moment. I wished it'd never change, but fate had other plans for us in mind..

Lost, completely lost..

Lost in the shadows. Forever.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic.**

**Note 3: Hope it wasn't too confusing for y'all, everything will explain itself as the story goes on – Jeremie just tells what happened.**


	2. Chapter two: how it began

**Chapter two: how it began**

**Dedicated to: Snowy, thanks for your reviews.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

It just wasn't fair. It was partially my fault. Desire and desperation are the worst advisers ever. And now it's too late. Completely lost..

I remember it all as if it was yesterday. At some point Ulrich and Odd started rattling about their great times on Lyoko, about their victories and special kills, like the Kolossus that time. William quickly joined their conversation, even though he didn't do much back then. Strangely, even Aelita talked with them, and came up with the idea which would bring us all to doom eventually. I could've denied her request, but I didn't. Xana was dead, so there shouldn't be any danger, right? No, totally wrong.

She proposed to turn the supercomputer on one more time, just for fun, you know? To think about the good old days. Everyone, Yumi included, agreed. As I mentioned before, our wicked virus was dead, so what could possibly go wrong? The same evening already we all stood in the most familiar room of the factory.

It didn't take long for Aelita and me to activate all programs, load the combat-gear + fix some updates, reprogram the vehicles and charge the scanners. After so much time had passed, it still was a piece of cake. A couple of minutes later, everyone (_except_ for me of course!) was standing on the trusted grounds of Lyoko. It was in the.. What was it again.. Desert sector, right.

I didn't like it that much to be honest, it was rather boring on my side. They walked around a bit, talked about some previous clashes, played around and such.. Aelita checked out some towers, went to see how sector 5 was doing – it reset to its old self again. Odd had some fun with his overboard in the meantime.

Later on, William, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi had a sparring match to see if they still possessed the skills they had so long ago. I have to admit it was quite spectacular. After like.. 30 minutes of battle, they deviritualised each other at once. Good way to end the day – all draw matches. I brought Aelita in as well and suggested to shut the whole thing down again, but our pink-haired girl refused.

She came up with the idea of creating monsters ourselves, just one more time, so we had some relaxation from time to time. With the difference _we_ controlled the monsters, and not some kind of virus. It seemed impossible and madness to me at first, but she insisted on trying it. And, well, I couldn't reject such a challenge. Would you? So, Aelita and me started programming, hacking, trying, ...

I can barely suppress a grin when I think back at those times. The first monsters we created got stuck somewhere in mid-air. The second ones fell in the digital sea. After some improvements in the data-banking system of the zero-processor of the current map, we finally managed to get them on the ground of Lyoko. It was a huge progress, the problem was that our monsters just collapsed the whole time. So, we had to input some data in their virtual structure. It eventually worked, but still it didn't do much: they just wandered around peacefully. Sometimes they'd shoot a laser, but totally random, sometimes even hitting one of their own kind.

Finally, oh finally, we found out what the problem was. I'm not going to explain it all, it'd take way too long. The point is we managed to control our own-created monsters. Well, it was just the same as Xana's, but hey, could you do it better? We now had an army of kankrelates, blocks, krabs and so on, under our control. Our Lyoko adventures could continue once again.

Yes, that's how it started.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic.**

**Note 3: 2 reviews for the next chapter would be nice. (thanks for the previous reviews by the way!)**

**Note 4: I don't know how many chapters will exist in this story, but it shouldn't become too long.**


	3. Chapter three: how it continued

**Chapter three: how it continued**

**Note: a big sorry for the waiting, I was quite busy on the forum.**

**Dedicated to: Fin the Warrior, thanks** **for your review.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

I remember it as if it was yesterday. After days.. – No, weeks of testing and trying, our _own _monsters were a success. They functioned perfectly as if Xana was still alive, with the difference that _we_ controlled them. Well, I most of the time. So, a few days later, after everything was up, we began with Lyoko battles as in the good old days. Just for fun.

I didn't agree to this: it was quite boring for me. Send them to Lyoko, virtualise their vehicles and play around with the monsters until they were defeated. I wasn't that good in fighting with those monsters anyway. Since it wasn't a real attack, I didn't have anything else to do while they were messing around. But, well, they were my best friends.

Soon they asked for even more though. Well, Aelita did. Going to Lyoko became a game and later on a habit. Nearly every day, and more Xana-like now. I activated a tower and the goal was to deactivate it in time, I in the role of the bad guy. It was all fake of course, and a waste of my time to be honest.

Later on it became obvious. _Someone_ got addicted to Lyoko, literally. Take a guess I'd say?

William loved Lyoko. He never had the chance to fight there, since Xana possessed him on his first trip. After that we couldn't send him back – well, we didn't trust him. This was a great opportunity for him to prove what he was worth, to play the hero, to gain our trust and just for relaxation. He went to Lyoko quite often – he kept it reasonable nonetheless.

Yumi? Oh no, she didn't go to Lyoko that much. Just from time to time, when she had nothing better to do. No way.

Odd surely liked Lyoko, messing around with the krabs and playing hero. However, he liked his art and skateboarding just as much. He kept it reasonable as well.

Ulrich loved going to Lyoko, saving the Princess, killing evil monsters, sacrificing himself on the virtual world.. Yeah, that was totally him. Though he loved going to Lyoko, to him this was just a game. He spent roughly the same amount of time in Lyoko as he did with his penchak-silat lessons. He also spent the same amount of time in soccer practice and simply lounging in his room listening to music (especially if it was performed by The Subdigitals.) So, no, not him.

Aelita. sighs Every single day: "Want to go to the factory with me? Please?" And if I dared to refuse, she activated those cute puppy eyes of her and asked it again with her prettiest voice. If I still rejected her she'd cry, making the others worried and mad at me. Even if she went to Lyoko on her own, she didn't mind. It wasn't even necessary to fight monsters, if she just could walk around there she was happy. Messing around in towers was her favourite activity.

Suspicious, no? The way she enjoyed the virtualisation process. The virtual DNA running trough her veins. The electricity surrounding her body. Of course I didn't trust it. But who am I to raise the red flag? I told her to slow it down, that's all I did. I didn't want to hurt Aelita, the girl I loved the most. If she was happy, then so was I.

I never should've let her. Never should've continued. But now it's too late.

Yes, that's how it continued.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic. The previous chapters have been replaced as well.**

**Note 3: We're goin' for 3 reviews now, kays? ******


	4. Chapter four: how it went wrong

**Chapter four: how it went wrong**

**Author's note: seems like I forgot the disclaimer (again). activates his robot Railen. Doesn't. Own. Code. Lyoko. Or. Anything. About. It. Beep.**

**Claimer: I do own the plot of the story.**

**Dedicated to: Weapon, great beta-reader, thanks a lot for the effort.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

I've talked to everyone about it. And, for this diary, I recorded it all on my cell phone. Give me a moment, I'll take it..

…

So, the first one I spoke to was **William.**

This happened on the courtyard. Unknowingly the both of us walked alone at some point, so I asked him about it. "Heya, William, what do you think about Aelita?" I asked subtlety.

He finished eating a cookie. "Aelita? She's a nice girl. Why?"

I shook my head in disappointment. "No, no, I mean her behaviour."

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Her behaviour? Something wrong with her?"

I just sighed and walked away.

Second person would be **Ulrich.**

This was at the soccer pitch, we just had a friendly match. The only reason I joined was to get him apart afterwards and ask him about Aelita.

"Now, what did you want to ask?" he said while taking his shoes off.

"I wanted to talk about Aelita. She's been.."

"Right, Aelita's been acting strange, huh? I know," he interrupted swiftly.

"To say the least. She's becoming a Lyoko-junky."

"Absolutely."

"Her molecular structure is getting used to the virtual dna-transfer of the scanners when.."

"Hey, no rush, Einstein. Keep in English."

"Well – let's say it's not good if it goes on like this."

"Understood. Just tell her not to go so often anymore?"

After that the conversation ended up pretty worthless, and eventually we even discussed about the soccer match.

So I moved on to **Odd.**

He immediately opened the door as I knocked, made a little bow and let me in. "Welcome to my humble dorm. You're just in time for the spectacle," he said to me, grinning.

I raised an eyebrow as I entered, laptop in my backpack. "Just in time for what?"

I'd rather not mention what happened there. It ended up with some bad words thrown at Kiwi, and I in need of new shoes.

"I wondered about Aelita's situation," I began, whispering for some reason.

"Ahh. You're questioning why she goes to the factory with you so often?" he countered, getting his MP3 player and turning it on.

"Well, yes. What do you think about it?" Instead of an answer, he hummed with some ridiculous song. "ODD!"

He frightened slightly as I spoke up, and lowered the volume of his MP3 player. "Cool it, Einstein. What did you say?"

"I asked what you think about how Aelita is doing?"

"What's wrong with it? Obviously she likes you, and wants to have more time with you. The factory is a perfect excuse for it, no? Lucky guy you are."

I blinked at his last statement. "What do you mean by that?"

"Never mind," was his fast response.

Anyway, so much for Odd's answer.

**Yumi** came next when I visited her house for the conversation.

I got surprised as it wasn't me who started talking, but the Japanese girl. "Jeremie, I'm worried about Aelita. You know, she goes so often to Lyoko – I don't trust it anymore. She's out of control."

I cleared my throat and pushed my glasses up to my face. "I was planning to discuss that. I don't trust it either – Aelita's become.. addicted to Lyoko. If you ask me, that isn't good."

"How come?"

"It's just not good for her body. But, why do you think she'd do that?"

Yumi remained quiet for a moment, looking down and stroking her hair. "If you ask me, I think she still doesn't want to leave her past. She might still love Lyoko, as it's been her home for more than ten years. Perhaps she doesn't accept the death of her father as well, or hope she'll find her mother there."

"But – that's ridiculous! She knows her father is dead. Lyoko isn't even real."

"Believe me, Jeremie. Girl stuff."

I'd rather not go in discussing about that, so shortly after I left their house.

Only one more person to talk to: **Aelita** herself.

One evening I simply walked inside her room. She never locked her door anyway. She was about to get to bed – lucky I didn't came a few moments earlier, she just had her nightshirt on.

"Jeremie…?" she mumbled, surprised.

"We gotta talk," I simply said and threw myself on her bed. She took a seat on the chair, blinking. "Aelita – I'll be frank. Why do you go to Lyoko so often?"

She threw me a confused look. "Often? I just go to Lyoko when I feel like it. For fun, you know? Like the others. Why?"

And that's the point were she got me down. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I didn't tell her about my research. The conversation ended quite badly, since the opposite happened of what I wanted to reach. She asked me if she could stay on Lyoko for one night. I eventually agreed, thinking that I could examine her further then. But deep down I knew it was only a weak excuse because I didn't want to hurt her.

So, that night, she went to sleep on Lyoko. I watched her the whole time. And the night after. And the night after…

Yes, that's how it went wrong.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic.**

**Note 3: Let's take 3 reviews again.**

**Note 4: Sorry for my short chapters.. I'll try to write longer ones.**


	5. Chapter five: how it became worse

**Chapter 5: how it became worse**

**Author's note: I think I'm goin' to concentrate more on this story now.**

**Dedicated to: Once again Weapon, this time for your review on this story.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

Aelita's behaviour became worse and worse. She was totally overdoing it. Now she slept every single night on Lyoko, she dared to skip classes to go to the damn place and was late on appointments with the Subsonics. Even worse, recently she didn't even go on tour with them anymore, reducing her chance to be a famous DJ later on. She spent less time with me as well – the last time we kissed seemed ages ago. She didn't ask me to send her to Lyoko anymore either. She just went there herself using the delayed virtualisation when I wasn't near.

At that time I thought of three things. Firstly, why she kept going to Lyoko. Second, why her behaviour changed that much (she became more antisocial, for example) and lastly, why she started going to Lyoko so often. There had to be a big reason for that, no?

Instead of puzzling over those questions I should've intervened immediately. If I did so, maybe all those terrible things wouldn't have happen. But no, I didn't want to hurt her feelings in any way, so I decided to do some research first..

I examined her the whole time. Odd even called me a spy. I tested her without her knowing, watched what she did while on Lyoko, worked on the scanners… The results of my efforts were terrifying. I should've told her immediately, but I just didn't dare.

I found out that the virtual world of Lyoko had a bad effect on your body, only when you went there a lot of time though. Why didn't it affect the others? Because they kept it reasonable, they didn't go _all_ the time. Why didn't affect Aelita earlier? Because at first, she was really an A.I, since Xana stole her human memories and human DNA. I now had a detailed idea of what was happening.

The problem was when you went to Lyoko so often like Aelita did, the virtual structure started to influence your body. It may mix with you eventually. It's hard to explain without using technical terms, so I'll use some examples instead.

Take, for example, drugs. You take it, you get a kick and you like it. But eventually it slowly destroys your health, mentally and physically, and you get addicted to it.

The same happened to Aelita on Lyoko. When she went to that place she had fantastic times. Just by being there she could have wonderful dreams or hallucinations, feel free, feel perfect. It got better every single time, every single second, so she kept going there. That was how her mental health got bad and her behaviour on Earth changed – she didn't experience the great feeling on Earth, so she became dejected. She always longed for Lyoko.

Later on, the virtual world started to infect her body as well. If my research was right, and there's a 98 chance it is, then she became more and more like virtual herself. Her reflexes improved, her condition, her senses, her abilities. Not a bad thing, but at the same time her body wouldn't be able to stay long on a non-virtual place, this being Earth.

Once again I refer to drugs. When you're addicted to it and don't use it for some time you'll get withdrawal symptoms. Same happened to Aelita. When she was too long on Earth, her body wouldn't be able to take it anymore and she got huge panic attacks, saw visions, heard voices and so on. Thanks to this, she wanted to go back even more, making her addiction worse and worse.

My friends also worried a lot about her, even William and Odd. I decided it was time I told her about it and stopped her and also asked her _why_ she started going there so often in the first place. Things once again went unexpectedly though, and _again_ it was my fault, my weakness.

So the next day I stepped inside her room without knocking. She sat on her bed, arms wrapped around her knees and starring at the empty wall in front of her. Seemed like she didn't even notice me coming in so I waived in front of her face. "Aelita, it's me."

She blinked and looked up. "Jeremie?"

I couldn't help but smile at her. I sat down on the bed next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder and giving a kiss on her cheek. Strangely she didn't get excited by that as she would normally. "Aelita, I'm afraid we have to talk again. I have some bad news."

She remained silent, looking down at the ground and swaying her legs slowly. I let out a long, drawn-out sigh before I asked her: "Why do you go to Lyoko so often?"

"I don't go that often," she replied quickly.

"No, seriously, you're lying and you know it."

"Are you telling me what I can and can't do again? You're not my father, you know! I thought you were reasonable unlike the others," she nearly shouted, still looking at the ground though.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone else spoke to me already and said I had to stop. But I'm old enough to decide what I want to do!"

That was a terrible moment for me to see her acting like she did then. "Sure you are. I was just wondering.. why did you want to go back to Lyoko? Why did you want the supercomputer back on?"

It took her a long time to answer. Seemed like she had an inner fight with herself whether to tell me or not. "Life,' she told me finally.

"Life?"

"Life. Jeremie, didn't you notice the fantastic advantage of Lyoko?"

"No," I replied, astonished by the answer. Did she discover a secret I couldn't figure out?

"Immortality. Didn't you understand that yet, _genius_?"

I shivered and pulled back my arm. The tone she said that last word – it totally wasn't like her. It sounded.. evil. "Enlighten me?" I asked softly, trying to stay calm."

"I've been stuck on Lyoko for like 10 years. I didn't get any older though, did I?"

"That was because the computer shut down."

"No, it's not. I've tested it all – it was because of Lyoko. As long as you're there, you won't age."

I was terrified when I heard this. It sounded totally crazy. "Aelita.. Why would you want to be immortal?"

She looked up to me for the first time that evening. I couldn't say precisely what emotion went through her. "Because," she started weakly, "I'm scared of aging. Scared of dying. I don't want that, Jeremie."

'Aelita.." That was the only thing I managed to say. Instead of telling her the risks, how it was bad for her, that she should stop.. I wanted to tell her of all disadvantages of being immortal in general, while on Lyoko it'd be even worse, not counting the side-effects. I could barely believe she said it, the shy Princess. I should've seen it earlier, but I didn't. She was afraid of death, so wanted to be immortal on Lyoko..

I decided to go for the big step and tell her. It should hurt her feelings, but seemed like I had no other choice. I cleared my throat..

She looked straight into my eyes. Now I could nearly see what she was thinking: hunger, lust, madness and fear was running through her mind. "You want to keep me off as well, don't you? You detest me, you used me, but now you've solved everything I'm worth nothing anymore. You don't care about what I want."

"Aelita! You know that's not true!" That was the time, I had to tell her everything I discovered, how it would destroy her if she went on like this. But she was faster than me. The next day my friends found me unconscious at her room, no trace of Aelita herself.

Yes, that's how it became worse.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic.**

**Note 3: I'd love to have 4 reviews for the next chapter again.**


	6. Chapter six: how one died

**Chapter six: how one died**

**Dedicated to: John, thanks for reviewing.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

Everyone freaked out when they found me. They got incredibly mad at Aelita and shouted names, although she wasn't around. Only Yumi and William listened to my explanation and tried to understand. But they didn't, they kept blaming Aelita while it was actually my fault. I've had so many chances but I didn't take them.

We talked about this issue and eventually went to the factory to have a word with her (where else would she be). Indeed, as expected we found her back on Lyoko, wandering around in the forest region, her favourite. Nervously I sat down in front of the keyboard, my friends behind me. "Aelita, I'm going to bring you back in," I said into the microphone.

We heard a surprised shriek before she answered. "Don't, I'm fine here."

I put my glasses more up to my nose, sweating a bit. "I'm sorry, but I have to. We want to talk with you."

"No, no, no, I don't want to!" she yammered. She sounded so scared, so fragile that my heart broke. "Not back to Earth.."

I turned around, facing the others. "Guys, I can't do it."

"What? Are you insane?" Odd exclaimed, waving his fists around.

"Just push the button, Einstein!" Ulrich shouted, acting as if he triggered a lever.

"Please, get her back," Yumi nearly begged.

"It'd be the best for all of us," William added firmly.

I nodded finally and turned to the keyboard again to prepare the materialisation process. Then Aelita started wailing again, begging me to leave her there, and gone was my courage. "Sorry, I can't ..." William interrupted me by suddenly pushing the enter button, devirtualising Aelita.

On our way down to the scanner room I complained to William about his act, that she wasn't ready yet, but everyone else agreed it had been necessary. They were right, but I refused to believe it at that time. I felt even more terrible as we found Aelita spazzing and screaming in a scanner, twitching as if she got stung by hundreds of insects. We immediately brought her to the nearest hospital with a weak excuse.

She stayed there for weeks. Doctors examined her, tested her, tried everything to figure out what was wrong, but they couldn't find out what it precisely was. They gave her medicines and even operated on her once. It didn't help though. The only solution seemed to give her calming medicines all the time so she laid in bed the whole day, barely aware of her environment. If they didn't do that, she would spazz out again. Horrible.

One day William, Odd and I visited her (Ulrich and Yumi would come later) right before she'd have her treatment again so she'd be less or more awake. I didn't see her for a whole week since we couldn't visit her at first, so I was more than glad to see her again.

She was sitting on her bed, starring at the ground as we entered her room. "Hey," I whispered, waving at her.

"Good to see you," William said as he grabbed a nearby chair to sit on.

Odd rushed over to her, sat next to her and put an arm on her shoulder. "Hi there, Princess! How're you?"

"See for yourself," she mumbled without moving an inch. I hated to see her like that, a wreck.

I bit my lip, more nervous than ever, but Odd won't leave it like that. "C'mon, Princess, don't be like that! Everything is going fine now. Keep it up and you'll be better before you know it!" William nodded in agreement.

Aelita shook her head though. "I'm not getting any better and you know that. Without the medicines I probably wouldn't even survive here." I glanced into her eyes. She had a rather far away look instead of the sparkling green eyes she used to have. "There's only one way to make me better."

"No way you're going back to Lyoko!" William immediately stated, narrowing his eyes. "Believe me it's the worst you can do. Now you just need to relax, then you'll be okay in no-time."

"The doctors have been saying that forever by now. The only thing they do is inject me with loads of drugs to keep me calm the whole day. They don't care about me. They wouldn't even notice it if I died.." Aelita answered slowly. Cleary she was exhausted, but she moved away from Odd anyway and started rummaging in a closet with some effort.

"That's not true!" Odd and I exclaimed simultaneously. Aelita started to pant and groan, her body in need of medicines or virtual DNA, but she continued whatever she was doing. The doctor came in for a moment, pointing at the clock. We'd have to go soon.

"Anyway," Aelita mumbled, retreating out of the closet with a syringe in her hand. In one glance I recognised the liquid, this being a deadly mix of toxic ingredients – God knew how she managed to get it.

"No!" I yelled, throwing myself on her to get the needle away. Both William and Odd reacted immediately as well. But we were too late. Curse that day of doom, which I could've prevented if I just was faster. One of us fell on the ground, pulling the needle out and throwing it away. But the poison would kill that person exactly 23 seconds later.

Yes, that's how one died.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Beta-read by: WeaponFanfic.**

**Note 3: Could I get 5 reviews before I post the next chapter? The story is nearly done. Just one more chapter to go.**


	7. Chapter seven: how it ended

**Chapter seven: how it ended**

**Author's note: Well, this is it, the last chapter of Lost In The Shadows. I hope you liked the story so far, and will like this ending. Enjoy!**

**Note 2: A last 'chapter' will be added after this, but it will just exist of some notes and last things I'd like to say.**

**Note 3: I posted this some sooner 'cause I noticed some people didn't review on here, but set this story on their alert list, which is okay as well.**

**Dedicated to: darkness over day, thanks for your review.**

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**Jeremie's diary**

The funeral was a week later. Impressive how many people were present. Odd Della Robbia, the funniest person I've ever met, died on a cruel accident with quick-acting poison. Nobody, except for four persons, one of them being me, knew what exactly had happened.

Of course I was there at the graveyard as the priest mumbled some last words about this great person. I mourned and blamed myself of what had happened. When you look back at things, it was me who've made mistakes and ruined the group.

Yumi was there, blaming no one but crying on Ulrich's shoulder, holding his waist. He stared at the grave, not showing any emotion on his face, but everyone knew he was hurt the most of all by losing his best friend. The principal was there together with Sissi and a few other students, all in silence. Jim was there, sobbing and admitting Odd had been his favourite pupil and he loved his jokes. His parents were there, together with all of his sisters, crying and yammering out loud. William was there as well, in his wheel chair, blinking away some tears.

Well, yeah, I didn't tell of the day of doom completely yet. As I said, Aelita somehow managed to get this dangerous needle and wanted to commit suicide with it. The three of us tried to stop her, but accidentally the needle got in Odd's hand. He died not long after that with a smile on his face, knowing that he had saved the pink-haired girl.

That wasn't everything though. Aelita got furious, cried, screamed, yelped, twitched, her body pleading for _something_. Her next act was horrible again. The only solution for her seemed to jump out of the window, shattering the glass in little pieces. William called her name and jumped after her immediately to catch her. Too bad, her room was on the fourth flour and Will fell badly. Aelita managed to escape, probably because of her virtual DNA. Like a Xanafied person, who isn't easily hurt either.

I stood there, too shocked to do anything useful. Aelita was running through the dark streets in her night shirt, Odd dead against the bed and William laid groaning on the ground, both his legs in an unhealthy position. They had tried to help and paid for it. But at least they did something, I hadn't done _anything_! William would never be able to run again after his fall. All my fault.

We both got interrogated by doctors, the principal and the police, but we never told the true story. Yumi and Ulrich were the only ones who knew the story besides us.

The group got shattered and sorrowful as we lost two friends. I swore to never start up something which I probably wouldn't be able to handle later on. William acted as the optimist he was, but I knew he sometimes would lock himself up in his room to mourn. Ulrich sulked more often and got depressed, but luckily he had Yumi to soothe him. Sometimes it seemed as if darkness came over Kadic by the loss of two of its students.

What about Aelita, you ask? Her dream got fulfilled. She went back to the factory and returned to Lyoko where she would be immortal.

She sat there on the ground, leaning against a tree in her favourite sector. Crawled together, arms around her knees and wiggling slowly back and forth. Her eyes starring with an absent look at something only she could see. She experienced all kind of dreams and got into heaven. It was all fake though.

That's how it would be. That was her fate. She would stay on Lyoko, leaning against the same tree, hallucinating impossible dreams.

She was lost in the shadows.

Forever.

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**Author's note: Make sure to check out the forum at cl.yourbb.nl/index.php ! Advertise your stories there, enjoy the games, discuss things and way more! Note: it's possible the forum starts up in Dutch thanks to an annoying little bug, but I can fix it for you when you pm me.**

**Note 2: Will be beta-read later.**


	8. Notes

**Notes**

With this I'm going to finish this story completely.

**Thanks to:**

To start of, a BIG thanks to WeaponFanfic who beta-read all chapters, taking away the typo's and such.

Secondly, also thanks to RenaYumi and LuneSolei who helped me writing the story unknowingly. One of Lune's stories inspired me as well as a chat with Rena.

Not to forget, thanks to all reviewers on this story! I wouldn't be much without your comments. I'll r&r your CL-related fics in return. Also a thanks to the people who didn't review, but put the story on their favourites/alert list.

Special thanks to the most loyal reviewer here: Snowy.

! This is my first completed story, yay!

**Some explanations:**

Now, how did I came up with this story? To be honest, I don't exactly know. It just popped up in my mind. A sad story, mainly about Jeremie and Aelita. While I read I got some more inspiration from Lune and Rena as I said, to express her addiction better. Too bad I wrote it all in Jer's pov, who blames himself for everythin'.

Why did I let Odd die and not someone else? Because, after reading so many stories, Odd nearly never dies. He might be popular, but this doesn't mean he's invulnerable, I wanted to show that. Accidents happen.

I wanted to let him die more heroic at first, Aelita shooting with a gun at Jeremie and Odd sacrificing himself by jumping in front of him, but I just couldn't place Aelita somewhere with a gun.

Why didn't I write a prologue or epilogue on this one? No idea either, I just couldn't think of anything fitting. Prologue wasn't really needed, and since there WILL BE A SEQUEL TO TIS STORY, I won't need an epilogue.  Sequel is called: Lost in the Darkness, and way better according to me. Well, at least it's a different style. No Jer's pov anymore. Lots of new mysteries. Lots of action and drama. Well, I hope so. You'll see, hope you'll enjoy it!

If you have more questions concerning this story or don't understand something, don't hesitate to ask in either a review or in a pm to me. Tips to write better are also appreciated, I could use all help.

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See you people later!


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